Links for 5-17-2016

To endorse Donald Trump is to make your political career hostage to a man who may, at any random moment, accuse a former president of treason. Or encourage his supporters to physically assault their opponents. Or spin wild conspiracy theories, or tell obvious lies, or praise murderous dictators.

Later:

Republicans considering whether to endorse Trump should ask themselves, honestly, whether they possess the same imperviousness as Trump. Because they’re going to need it. Over the next six months, any Republican running for election who is supporting Trump is going to be importuned to defend every insane utterance, every lie, every dangerous idea that emanates from the man. They’re going to be pestered, every day, at every campaign stop, to either endorse or disavow everything noteworthy Trump says.

Time and time again, Trump’s supporters in and out of his cult ultimately conclude that any sin committed by Donald Trump is okay because he is not Hillary Clinton. It cannot be that they are both unfit for office. Trump, in every case, is more fit for office because Trump is not Clinton. Never mind the bankruptcies, never mind the endorsement of war crimes, never mind the advocacy of torture, never mind the swindling, never mind the affairs and women and corruption and mob ties and nepotism and repeated failures and the list goes on and on. Trump is not Clinton.

Hitler is not Hillary Clinton either. The neo-nazis and white supremacists backing Donald Trump fetishize Hitler too. Trump dog whistles to them and the Republican Establishment joins them in howls of delight. One need not stretch beyond Godwin’s law to conclude that the current Republican Party would support Hitler too because Hitler, thanks be to the reich, is not Hillary Clinton.

Too few Republicans will come out of this with their integrity intact and too many Republicans, thinking they can change Donald Trump, will instead one day find that Trump has changed them instead. But hey, at least he is no Hillary Clinton.

The Obama administration published a regulation that raises the threshold for overtime pay from $23,660 to $47,476. In the future the threshold will be updated every three years and “indexed to ensure the threshold remains at the 40th percentile of full-time salaried workers in the lowest income region of the country.”